“The publication of this atlas will confirm Israel’s belief that there exists hostility toward their country from parts of the Arab world. It will not help to build up a spirit of trust leading to peaceful co-existence,” a British bishop named Declan Lang,

Oh my goodness!

This is the most amazing part to me!

Yes, let's not give those crazy-ass Israelis any more fuel for their delusions that the Arab world wants to FUCKING LITERALLY WIPE THEM OFF THE MAP

I have long thought that the President of the U.S. should present to middle eastern leaders a leather bound Atlas with the holy sites of Islam omitted. Accompanied by the threat that if there is one more terrorist event anywhere in the name of Islam then the cities will vanish. I would give them six months to spread the word.

For what it is worth, map makers used to insure that their maps were not being copied by intentionally inserting streets that did not exist on their maps. Thus it was that Gay Lane in the Castro was sought after in vain by gay tourists to the Bay Area. This was in the seventies.

American oil companies that wanted to drill in the Middle East agreed, in the 1950's, that no Jews would be on the crews, and that any Christians would keep their Christianity secret. No Bibles, no crosses, nothing religious.

It is my belief that this corruption, motivated by greed, has left a very bad impression about the USA in the minds of serious Muslims in the Middle East. Our approach there has been shameful. Of course serious religious belief often leads to strife--it's not like Muslims have anything to be proud about--but a lack of faith is equally disastrous, in my opinion.

Maybe Israelis are into phase III of the iron dome defense system, so when Harper Collins tried using Google Earth there was nothing there. That should make the Muslim death cultists even madder. The Jews packed up everything and left for Miami.

I call on President Obama to replace our ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Our current top diplomat is, of course, an old white man.

It's bizarre for liberals to defend affirmative action when there's no racism in sight, and to abandon it when confronted with actual bigotry in the world.

Without making a big deal about it, I think our ambassador to Saudi Arabia should be a Jewish woman. Barbara Boxer, for instance, is my favorite choice for diplomat to Saudi Arabia. She is exactly the sort of diplomat that country needs. (As a Republican I think that's a win-win)

But even if you want to go with a more diplomatic diplomat, I don't see how liberals can object to the idea. Unless you are the party of Old White Men Who Suck Up To Saudi Arabia.

Anyway, I think the sexism in Islamic society is just as big a problem as the anti-Semitism. So our ambassador should be a Jewish woman. I nominate Boxer half in jest, as I would love to get her out of the country. But I also think nominating a Jewish woman would be a serious act of civil disobedience, and would require a very strong personality and a very brave one. Boxer is pugnacious so, maybe?

I also think we should simultaneously nominate a Muslim to serve as our ambassador to Israel. Ahmad Rashad, maybe. See, I like Ahmad Rashad. I think serving as ambassador to Israel would be an honor and a lot of fun. Israel is not actually the problem. I don't know if liberals understand this.

I also don't know if appointing Barbara Boxer and Ahmad Rashad to Saudi Arabia and Israel, respectively, will solve anything. But it might highlight where the problems are.

I think we should use diplomacy as a tool of peaceful aggression. Aggressiveness gets a bad name, but instead of passively accepting the Saudi culture as acceptable, we should be undermining their evil and highlighting it to the world.

I went to film school with a very rich guy from Saudi Arabia, very sweet man. Most of the upper class Saudis are like that, educated abroad and very tolerant. It reminds me very much of the American South prior to the civil rights movement. The upper class did not hate black people, they argued for segregation to protect black people. The lower class hated black people. But of course the whole rotten regime was hateful.

I'm sure the Saudis make similar arguments about the necessity to keep Jews and women in their place for security purposes. We will be upsetting them, provoking them. The Saudis will be very upset about the need for security for the American embassy. Our Jewish woman ambassador is unsettling their people, by her very existence.

And the point we are making is that their society needs to change. And if they want our ambassador to go home, we can oblige them. We don't need an ambassador in Saudi Arabia.

Our goal here should be to create a very public stink about their sexism and anti-Semitism, and also embarrass all the other countries in the world, who are also not sending women or Jews as diplomats to the region. The point is civil disobedience in the MLK style, to cause a disruption in their society in as peaceful a way as possible.

HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologises for this omission and for any offence caused.

Re the article linked by Saint Croix, I think "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" solves the problem. GHW was right to accede to the Saudis' demand, and GW was wrong to accede. The purpose of diplomacy is not to reform foreign societies, or to insult their people's or their leaders.

Comparing Saudi Arabia--who has not invaded anybody--to Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan is silly. Are you suggesting an armed invasion of Saudi Arabia? I don't think you'd get American support for that, let along international support. The whole idea is ridiculous.

My point is that we can (and should) engage in provocative behavior that is diplomatic rather than military. You want to skip the diplomacy and declare World War III? On Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia has been waging a war on the rest of the world to violently spread Islam since it was formed in the 1940's, and the people who lived there have been doing the same for over a thousand years.

Since for business purposes Israel doesn't exist for HarperCollins the Israeli's ought to deem since they don't exist for HarperCollins the patents, trademarks and copyrights that HarperCollins has in Israel don't exist.

My point is that we can (and should) engage in provocative behavior that is diplomatic rather than military. You want to skip the diplomacy and declare World War III? On Saudi Arabia?

“We” are engaging in provocative behavior — not Obama but the U.S. fracking revolution (which is occurring primarily on private not public lands) is making Saudi Arabia's principal economic resource (which fuels their worldwide campaign to convert all the world's mosques to their extremist brand of Islam) to be worth only a fraction of its value otherwise. We're seeing the results at the pump right now.

Saudi Arabia has been waging a war on the rest of the world to violently spread Islam since it was formed in the 1940's, and the people who lived there have been doing the same for over a thousand years.

“Saudi Arabia” actually had its start in the 1740's, not the 1940's — and it's maintained the same extremist Wahhabi faith ever since.

Centered on Riyadh, the Saudi polity was destroyed once by the Ottomans, in 1818 — but reconstituted itself later in 1824. Then in 1891 the Saudi state was politically erased by a competing Arabian polity, but the Saudi dynasty resumed rule over Riyadh and its environs in 1902. By 1932 the Saudis had consolidated control over the bulk of the Arabian peninsula.

It will take a few more mass murders by Muslim scum before the American sheeple realize that we are in a war to the death--either we destroy Islam or it destroys us. Nuking the so-called "holy cities" will be a key milestone.

Saudi Arabia has been waging a war on the rest of the world to violently spread Islam since it was formed in the 1940's, and the people who lived there have been doing the same for over a thousand years.

And they've been doing it with our money. Now we can drive the price per barrel down to the point where they can't afford to cause mischief.

"The publication of this atlas will confirm Israel’s belief that there exists a hostility towards their country from parts of the Arab world,” Bishop Declan Lang, chairman of the Bishops’ Conference Department of International Affairs, told The Tablet. “It will not help to build up a spirit of trust leading to peaceful co-existence.”

I wonder where those wacky Israelis got that impression. And, what spirit of trust leading to peaceful co-existence. Have the Palestinians had that EVER?